Fossils and palaeontology
We may say that every day, palaeontology researches, active worldwide, present some new discovery : it may be a new species, or totally unknown organisms, that are not represented in the modern flora and fauna, at times they are so “strange” that it is difficult to understand their anatomy and way of living, at times they show small “flashes” of day to day life, trapped forever in the geological layers.
A general picture of the evolution of life on Earth is now quite clear, at least the general lines, however every new discovery forms a small piece of the puzzle of a picture that is becoming increasingly complete and greatly detailed. At times a small detail, preserved by chance in the sediments, that surfaces equally by chance, and is recognized, brings a fundamental contribution, and at times also generates a small “revolution” in the way of thinking and interpreting the long history of life on our Planet. This is the case, for example, of a recent discovery in Utah, that shows how a ferocious predator, Falcarius, a dinosaur covered with feathers, similar to a Velociraptor, evolved subsequently into a herbivorous dinosaur, approximately 125 million years ago, in a sort of “counter-evolution”.
Special reports
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3 November 2014
Conan the bacterium
Have you ever leafed through the pages of a book of Guinness World Records? You can find records of all…
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1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
31 October 2019
What language does science speak? 2nd part
There is an old proverb that says “the apple does not fall far from the tree ”. Apparently it seems…
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
10 March 2021
International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021
This year has been designated by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) as the International Year of…
8 March 2021
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
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3 November 2014
Conan the bacterium
Have you ever leafed through the pages of a book of Guinness World Records? You can find records of all…
-
1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
31 October 2019
What language does science speak? 2nd part
There is an old proverb that says “the apple does not fall far from the tree ”. Apparently it seems…
-
3 November 2014
Conan the bacterium
Have you ever leafed through the pages of a book of Guinness World Records? You can find records of all…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Life from space
According to some scientists life has always existed in the Universe just like the Universe...
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Bacteria as Sherlock Holmes
A drop of blood, a fragment of skin or a hair found on the scene of a crime can supply…
Down-pouring bacteria
It sounds incredible, but recent researches have found that bacteria can cause some atmospheric phenomena...
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13 May 2011
Life from space
According to some scientists life has always existed in the Universe just like the Universe...
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13 May 2011
Clonation and Future
The ability to give life to identical organisms, called clonation...
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13 May 2011
Life from space
According to some scientists life has always existed in the Universe just like the Universe...